BMW Museum Showcases Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is the subject of the latest special exhibition at BMW headquarters in Munich.

Goodwood may be the home of Rolls-Royce, but if you go there, you won’t find a museum showcasing the company’s products and history as you might at other factories and corporate headquarters. There’s a private Rolls-Royce museum in Austria, but if that’s not enough to demonstrate the company’s history – and drive home the point of its German ownership – the BMW Museum in Munich has just opened an exhibition dedicated to its upscale English subsidiary.

Called “Strive for Perfection”, the exhibit at the BMW Museum marks ten year’s of the Bavarian automaker’s ownership of Rolls-Royce as well as the 150th anniversary of Sir Henry Royce’s birth. The five-floor display includes 15 cars spanning from 1907 through 2012 – including the 1926 10EX prototype which Sir Henry built and drove to demonstrate his company’s superiority. The 1,000 square meters of floor space also covers the history of the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament and the Pantheon radiator grille, as well as displays on design, craftsmanship, engineering and advertising, among other areas.